With the impending war, budgetary woes and the upcoming MLK holiday, one could easily forget that Jan. 22 is the 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. One might overlook the peril this decision faces in 2003, and frankly, one might not fully take in the Bush administration’s ongoing war on women.
You might be tempted to think of the above statement as hyperbole, so I would like to take you on a short journey through the decisions this administration has made that affect women.
Shortly after taking office, President Bush reinstated the Global Gag Rule. The rule denies funding for HIV/AIDS care and contraception to any organization that refers needy women to abortion services, even if U.S. dollars are not used for those services. This was followed by denying $34 million to the U.N. Population Fund, even as youngsters from around the world imperiled by AIDS/HIV begged for that help. The Bush administration opposed our country signing on to The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), despite the widespread support of this convention by the rest of the world. This administration denied $200 million scheduled for programs to support women and to address HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan.
Shifting from their international efforts to national ones, the Bush administration, through Ashcroft’s Department of Justice, threw their weight behind an effort in Ohio to ban certain abortion procedures. This was followed by legislation to increase fetal rights through the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and provide fetal health care through the CHIPS program. The mother, on the other hand, is denied both prenatal and postpartum health care.
Appointments made in this administration, at the agency and the judicial level, are consistently anti-choice. The recent appointment of Dr. W. David Hager to the FDA’s Reproductive Health Drug Advisory panel would be laughable if not so painful. He has published books that advocate prayer as the first line of women’s health care. All the nominations for the circuit court benches that were turned down because of their biased positions on abortion are now going to be recycled, and will no doubt be confirmed.
Finally, government Web sites are now tain ted with biased information based on little to no scientific evidence. An example is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “revised” fact sheet on condom use, which supports the Bush administration’s opposition to all forms of contraception. And, of course, the NCI Web site suggests an unproven link between breast cancer and abortion.
Three major decisions have been paramount to the full enfranchisement of women in our country: The right to vote, the right to contraception and the right to choose. All of these decisions acknowledge that women have the right to make decisions regarding their own bodies, and can be trusted to make decisions that are in the best interests of their families and society. The real meaning of Roe is our national confidence in the wisdom and compassion of women. We all need to stand up and speak out in support of this revolutionary decision and its key role in the health and well-being of American women.